Mars Rock Screams on Twitter as NASA Blasts it With a Laser
Read the increasingly desperate tweets of Martian rock N165 as it is zapped by Curiosity
“Poor little N165. It never really had a chance. As soon as the Curiosity rover warmed up its rock-vaporizing laser, it was certain to be used as target practice. But thanks to the miracle of social media, that Martian rock has a voice, and it’s not happy.”
@N165Mars (the first of many Mars rocks to twitter)
Keith’s note: N165 isn’t alone. NASA has attacked helpless Mars rocks before. Curiosity and Spirit ground holes in lots of them. Ray (a NASA Watch reader) and I were both reminded of a historical precedent, of sorts: the 1967 attack on a Horta by Kirk and Spock. If you will rceall the Horta was associated with small round mineralized spheres (like super-sized Mars “blueberries”) that were its eggs. They may look like plain old rocks to us. I’m just sayin’ …
NASA Curiosity Rover’s Laser Instrument Zaps First Martian Rock
“Today, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity fired its laser for the first time on Mars, using the beam from a science instrument to interrogate a fist-size rock called “Coronation.”
Keith’s update: Looks like they changed N165’s name.
Photo: First Laser-Zapped Rock on Mars
You have gone too far bringing weapons of mass regolith destruction to my peaceful planet! Go home, tele-robotic earthling prospector! Uh Oh, it’s getting hot in here! No, no don’t point that thing over here….
I like “The Devil in the Dark”, but the best Star Trek episode is “City on the Edge of Forever”. My favorite Lost in Space episode was “Return from Outer Space” where Will Robinson uses a matter transfer device to return to earth.
I liked both episodes too. Saw them when they first ran. In “City on the Edge of Forever” Spock hacks a tricorder and in “Return from Outer Space” Wil hacks one of those beaming pads. 60’s space hackers.
I wish we could reincarnate Irwin Allen and Gene Roddenberry, seems like we need a really good adaptation of The Martian Chronicles, maybe HBO could do a miniseries.
Return from Outer Space was one of my favorites also. I thought I remembered the story taking place around Christmas time on Earth, I just checked and my memory is correct. The episode first aired December 29th, 1965.
I also found these memorable quotes:
Davey Sims: Why don’t you just come over to my house and you can phone your mother from there?
Will Robinson: My mother’s at least ten light years from here. So’s the rest of my family.
Davey Sims: Oh, your “mother’s at least ten light years from here.” You know, you kids are getting wackier every day.
Coronation,
I think you Mars rocks need to embrace a wider perspective on matters. In order to bask in the social limelight, it’s generally necessary to take a little stress in stride and get used to the added pressure. If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the solar system. In the long run, we all only end up as vapour anyhow.
Steve
NASA needs to take another panorama picture and see if any of the rocks have moved slightly farther away from Curiosity.
If you haven’t found him yet, look up Sarcastic Rover and follow him.
I can’t resist pointing out how Curiosity’s laser plays into the whole historical exploration trope. What explorer in a dangerous, unknown venue wouldn’t be packing heat? I suspect that’s why the public is entranced by these hole-burning capabilities. Why, maybe all NASA missions should include firearms of some sort. Dare I suggest that the folks on ISS be allowed to “carry”? Never can tell what aliens might try to occupy the ship. And what about those rogue Chinese with designs on our station! (Well, they are motivated by our own designs in making their own station …) Although it would provoke a lot of grief about space weaponization, it would go a long ways towards attaching the “explorer” label onto these astronauts, and assert power more conspicuously.
Just kidding.
Zap!
“He’s dead, Jim.”
Lost in Space actually started out pretty good, the premise being that civilization on Earth is in danger of self destruction and so a family is sent out in an attempt to begin colonizing a nearby star system. An evil foreign agent (Dr. Smith) attempts to sabotage the mission but is accidentally trapped onboard. The first season episodes (in B&W) were more serious in tone. In fact evil Dr. Smith was apparently going to be killed off after a few episodes. But as the series progressed it quickly evolved into camp, and Smith’s character became basically comic relief. Since most reruns are of the color episodes, most people only see the later silliness. It’s understandable that someone seeing season three’s “The Great Vegetable Rebellion” (with a guy in a carrot suit) is not going to have a very high opinion of Lost in Space,
Irwin Allen’s other series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea followed a similar route, starting out as sci-fi/suspense but later becoming a bit daffy.